Review: Club Dead

GoodReads Summary: Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own.

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*Spoiler Alert* I am probably the last person on earth reviewing this book but just in case you haven't read it consider yourselves warned.

 

This is the third in a series of what is now known to be thirteen books. This book is deeper and darker than the first two books. It like the first two books are all exciting and she is in love then bam Bill cheats on her and things go downhill from there. Well not completely downhill she doesn't get killed but you get my drift.

For me reading about this betrayal was painful. I did not realize just how invested I was in Sookie as a character until this happened. I was so pissed at Bill and this is a fictional person but seriously my emotions were as if they were real. Then when I started trying to tell Sookie to not mess things up more by getting involved with Eric, I knew I have become a die hard sookie fan. I will now order ALL books from my library.

In all seriousness though this book takes a darker turn. There is almost no sex in this book and there is Bill who decides to take up with his ex. I liked how this book explored that relationship. The author captured the emotions that are inherent in a betrayal.

Even though I was rooting for her not to I also liked how she showed how the “chemistry” was between Sookie and Eric. It made sense in that she was hurting over Bill to want to betray him back but she doesn’t all the way.

This not “great works of art” by any means but like a good candy bar it is hard to resist. It is great to read between more substantial books.

Review: Living Dead in Dallas

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is on a streak of real bad luck. First, her co-worker gets murdered and no one seems to care. Then Sookie is attacked - and poisoned - late one night by some weird and apparently mythical beast. She only survives because the local vampires roll up and graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it). But in return the blood-suckers need a favor.
Which is why Sookie ends up in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire, on the condition that her undead friends don't do anything, well, vampiric while she's there. Easier said than done. All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly- Summary from Goodreads.

 

This is the second book in Charlene Sookie Stackhouse series. I reviewed the first book here. The second book can be read alone but you will miss background information that will help explain the story. The first book was more world building. The second book is more plot driven.

With some books the first one is great then the second one is not so great, This was not a problem with this book. It was as good as the first one. I think my friend did a good job in hooking me on to this series.

I like seeing a strong female character in a book. Those weepy whiny girl and woman charters annoy me. Sookie on the other hand is strong and does not take crap from anyone. Vampire or human. If vampires were real even in situations where any “normal” person would back down Sookie faces it with courage and conviction.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes paranormal books. I just hope the author writes many many many more books to come.

Review: Dead Until Dark

People who know me long enough will know that I still mourn the death of Anne Rice vampire seris. She was one of my most favorite if not my favorite writer of all time. Yet when she went back to God she stopped writing the vampire stories and we fans were left with getting our vampire fix another way.

I will just be honest, I hate Twilight, and Bella. It saddens me that people actually buy that cheap crap. It infuriates me that teenage girls everywhere say they can relate to Bella on her issues. If that’s what American role models have been reduced to, I fear for this great nation.

A friend had read Sookie Sackhouse books first, and knowing that I was craving something along the Anne Rice spectrum of vampire stories.  She bought me the first two book in the series just to show me how good they are. I was not disappointed. It is almost like having Anne Rice back again. Granted this author does not go into heavy mythology (well at least not in the first book) or religious issues but the rest is still wonderful.

And Charlaine Harris effortlessly combines mystery with the paranormal and even some romance thrown in. The characters development is such that you become attached to Sookie. This is where readers like me has a problem. Since I know that there are nine (soon to be 10) more books after this one so you KNOW Sookie is not going to be killed. Yet the writing is so good that just for a minute you are worried that perhaps in your book she might meet a different fate.

Sookie can hear peoples thoughts. She has spent her whole life trying to block out other people. It is this reason that she could not go to school and is in a low paying job. When a vampire rolls into town Sookie discovers that his mind is blessedly silent. They develop a relationship. Woman turn up dead and Sookie attempts to use her powers to solve the mystery.

One big difference between this book and other vampire books is that the vampires in the Sookie Stackhouse books are “out”. They are part of mainstream human society. This puts a different spin on events.

I loved this book and will be reading all the books in the series.

Flirt

When I first picked up this book, i felt she must had a serious case of writers block. Most of her books are good and thick but this one was only 178 pages long. Then I found out that this book was a cure for writers block while she was writing another book. Ok whatever works.

The plot is that two bereaved spouses come and try to force Anita to raise their respective spouse from the grave. She refused both of them but one take extraordinary measures to force her to raise his wife.

I liked her earlier work but as time goes on it seems that her books become filled more and more with orgy type scenes. This book however was different. It focused almost solely on Anita’s work as a necromancer. There was one sex scene but it was not as explicit as usual. I hope this marks a turn in her returning to her roots.

As usual the ending turned out well. Anita always gets herself in situations that I think she cant get herself out of but she always manages to. The plot wasn't much. I felt that it was better than some of her latest work in that the plot actually had some action other than sex in it. I am not a prude by any means but when a whole book and worse book after book starts having multiple sex scenes that distract from the plot then I start to take offense.

This was a short and sweet book that avoid her earlier books pitfalls.